What do teenagers find scary?

Blood and gore

violence

Being followed

Drug dealing

If these were scenes from a film, which would you find the scariest?

When asking people this questionnaire, these were the results we collect:

1: Being followed
2: Blood and Gore

3. Being followed

4.Violence

What types of thrillers do teenager prefer?

Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels



Sin City



Casino Royale




Which film do you find most appealing and why?

1: I found Sin City most appealing because I like the black and white colour scheme that the creator has used, also the use of random bright colours to make elements more important and stand out.

2: I think the film I found most appealing was Casino Royale as it has lots of action scenes which I enjoy and also it has Daniel Craig in who is a good actor as I have see from different films he is in.

3. Casino Royale, because I prefer the storyline.

4. They all appeal to me, and as I haven't seen Lock, Stock and Two smoking barrels I would be interested in watching it, as it seems like a crime thriller that could also make you laugh.

Preliminary task planning

Questionnaire for audience expectations of Independent/mainstream film

1. Male or Female:

2. Age:

3. Do you usually watch Indepedent or mainstream films?

    Independent        Mainstream      Both       Neither   

4. What do you think of these characters?

5. Which location would you expect to be Independent and mainstream?

6. Where do you normally watch films?

Television    Internet    Vue    Odeon    Cinema City  

7. What do you like about Independent films?

  8. What do you like about mainstream films?

Thriller Film Audience Research

What I want to find out:

- The audience's expectation's of independant/mainstream film
- What type of thrillers teenagers prefer
- What music is scary/tense
- What teenagers are scared of
- What storyline would appeal to them


How I am going to find out:

- Questionaire
- Interviews with film clips/posters
- Interviews with music clips
- Interviews with pictures/fim clips or questionaire.
- Give examples of story lines to find out what they prefer


What I expect to find out:

- I might expect to find out that people around the certificate age of 15 haven't seen many independent films, therefore don't have much expectations. I would think that for mainstream films, they would expect to see good actors, locations, and special affects.
- they might enjoy action, british gangster thriller? Although I would expect girls and boys views to be different.
- Jumpy or tense music
- I would expect real life situations and villans to be something that might scare the audience
- I think everyone will have different opinions on what storyline they prefer, but again I think that anything realistic would appeal to them.

Cosmetic Adverts Final Design

Aurora Perfume

Codes and Conventions

When planning my design for an advertisement me and Holly decided to create an advert for a perfume, using all the seasons. We wanted to create a storyboard affect showing that the product was available and suitable all year round. As a pair we decided that I would work on the the spring and autumn adverts, and Holly would work on the Summer and Winter. We tried to make the costumes suitable for the certain season. For example, scarf and hat for winter, and shorts and top for summer. For all adverts we placed a picture of the product in the low right hand corner, to keep it consistent. However, in the Autumn advert I thought it would be effective if the model was holding the perfume bottle and looking down at it smiling. I think this would represent how the perfume can change and improve your life, form how cheerful she looks. We added a slogan to the winter advert saying "escape the winter blues". We thought that this would be especially important for the winter one, because it suggests that this product can lighten upyour life, even in the worst of months.

In the Autumn one, I wanted it to look as if she was holding the bottle of perfume, so I took a picture of her with her hands out and photohopped a picture of the product into her hands. I changed the colour to a golden shade of yellow, to help bring out an autumn theme. Then we added the name of the product 'Aurora' to the perfume, to make it look more professional. For this advert I took a picture of the school field, surrounded by trees and added Hannah to the photo using photoshop. I thought it would be effective if I changed the background to black and white, because then it would make the the Hannah, the product and the leaves around her stand out more. It also suggests that the perfume can make you feel happier and brighter in Autumn, and attracts the audience.

For the spring advert, I wanted  the colour of the perfume bottle to reflect the colour of spring. So I used an image of a blossom tree, and made the changed the colour of the product using a similar pink. I took a picture of Hannah holding a flower to build on the spring affect and colour scheme. The way that she is looking upwards smiling could suggest that she is looking and hoping into the future. I wanted it to show the audience that buying the perfume could make there future a better place.

Representation

The social group that we wanted to be represented was the students that are currently at further education. We tried to make the adverts represent the lifestyle by using features that would appeal to them. For example, freedom. I think this is a very important aspect to this lifestyle, as the people this age might be feeling the need to escape from school work and stress. I think that the fact that all the adverts give a positive view on life at this age, will definitely improve the audience's attraction to the product. We wanted our advert to communicate to all students that life can be easier and less stressful whilst in education.

Target Audience

We were specifically aiming our product to an audience of females aged 16-18, and we thought that it would be a good idea to use my twin sister Hannah to model, and Holly for the winter one, as this would make it clearer who the product is aimed at. I think each advert has a bit of a narrative as I wanted to show that you can enjoy life in all seasons. It suggests that the model has an enjoyable life, which helps to sell the product aswell as a lifestyle.

Evaluation

I think that one of our main strengths is the use of a model that is the exact age of the target audience, as this makes it easier to grab the attentions of this audience. Also I think the settings and backgrounds of the adverts help to represent the seasons, and we tried to make the outfits and colour of the bottles relate to to the time of year aswell. One thing that I think could be a weakness, is the fact that we only had a slogan on one of the advertisements. I think it was more important to have one one winter one, however if we added one to all of them, it may have improved our work. Also we weren't sure if the fact that on the summer advert Holly isn't facing the camera would be a weakness. She is facing out to see, so the audience cannot see her face. Although I feel that this could show that she is looking into the future as if there is something waiting for her. I thought that this would work, as the message of our product was that life can be enjoyable and easy, leading to a happy future.

From Script to Screen: The differences between a mainstream and independent film

Mainstream films are very different from Independent films in many ways. One of the main differences is that independent films are generally produced by an individual or a small company, whereas mainstream films tend to me made by bigger companies such as Universal Pictures or Fox. Mainstream films need more money to be produced, so are generally made by successful, well-known film companies.

            Mainstream films tend to involve an award winning director. For example: Richard Curtis who directed Love Actually or Christopher Nolan who directed Batman. The directors of independent films are often not well known, or even heard of. The production of mainstream films also differs from the way that independent films are produced. The locations in mainstream are often well known places that would involve a lot of money to film in the certain areas. For example, in Love Actually most of the film was shot in London, in sites such as: Trafalgar Square, Somerset house, Grosvenor Chapel and many more. Places like these would be very difficult for independent films to use because of the money issue, and the equipment needed to block around the site.

Another noticeable difference between the types of films is how mainstream films are able to use special effects of unrealistic storylines. The effects are so well produced that it is difficult to point out any drawbacks as they look so realistic. A good example of this is Avatar. Avatar is a fairly new release which includes new technology that took years to produce the film. The animated film development began in 1994 and after the release grossed at $2,740,405,721. This is completely different to independent films as they generally don’t include any special effects and stick to simple storylines, so that no effects are needed to be added. This keeps the budget of the film as low as possible.

Mainstream marketing includes adverts such as trailers in cinemas and TV, posters, internet advertising on websites that are commonly viewed in order to get people’s attention. Because the companies have the money to market their films in this way, more people are able to hear of it. An example of main screen marketing is the film The Boat That Rocked, created by Universal Pictures. Many different posters were created during the making of the film which included bright colours that looked very 60s. Which was when the film was set. The poster also included ratings from a newspaper to increase the publicity of the film in order to get more recognition. Generally, the marketing of independent films is characterized by limited release designed to build word-of-mouth or to reach small specialty audiences. Some independent market their films by the internet by discussing it on Internet forums or others attend independent film festivals or attend other small filmmakers premiere events.

The company’s film distributor is the one that releases the movie to public either theatrically or for home-viewing. Mainstream distribnution is usually are distributed at cinemas all around the world. Independent films don’t often appear in the cinema. When the film has been produced sometimes it will appear at a film festival or on a website. This contrasts with the mainstream distribution which are shown internationally.